Donald Trump ‘will help Israel knock out Hamas’: JD Vance

JD Vance told Fox News a ceasefire deal might be achieved this week but if not, the Trump administration would use a combination of sanctions and force to free the Israeli hostages.

Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu take part in an announcement of Trump's Middle East peace plan in 2020. Picture: AFP.

Donald Trump will help Israel “knock out” Hamas if a ceasefire deal in Gaza isn’t agreed by the time he is inaugurated, JD Vance has asserted.

Asked to expand on Mr Trump’s threat that “all hell will break loose” if an agreement to free the Israeli hostages in Gaza isn’t reached by January 20, the Vice-president-elect told Fox News it would entail a combination of sanctions and force.

“It means enabling the Israelis to knock out the final couple of battalions of Hamas and their leadership. It means very aggressive sanctions and financial penalties on those who are supporting terrorist organisations in the Middle East,” Mr Vance said.

“It means actually doing the job of American leadership, which Donald Trump did very well for four years, and he’s gonna do very well for the next four years,” he added.

Mr Vance didn’t elaborate on how the Trump administration would help the Israeli military destroy the two remaining Hamas battalions in Gaza.

The Israeli Defence Forces have said they know where the battalions are but they have avoided attacking them directly because they’re holding the remaining hostages. Some hostages have died in IDF attacks on Hamas, while others have been executed by their captors when they sense Israeli troops approaching.

Mr Vance said a deal might be achieved as early as this week – in the dying days of the Biden administration – crediting Mr Trump’s threats for any potential breakthrough in talks.

“Regardless of when that deal is struck, it will be because people are terrified that there are going to be consequences for Hamas,” he said.

Joe Biden meets Benjamin Netanyahu in White House earlier this month. Picture: AFP.

In a phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, US President Joe Biden stressed “the immediate need” for a ceasefire in Gaza.

The two men spoke overnight (AEDT), after Mr Netanyahu’s office announced that Israel was sending a delegation of senior officials to Qatar for the negotiations.

A readout from Mr Biden’s office said the President “stressed the immediate need for a ceasefire in Gaza and return of the hostages with a surge in humanitarian aid enabled by a stoppage in the fighting under the deal”.

Mr Netanyahu’s office said the Prime Minister informed Mr Biden about the latest progress in the talks.

“The Prime Minister discussed with the American President the progress in the negotiations for the release of our hostages and updated him on the mandate he has given to the negotiating team in Doha, aimed at advancing the release of the hostages,” Mr Netanyahu’s office said in a statement.

The call came after a meeting in Jerusalem with Mr Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, a representative of Mr Biden and senior Israeli officials.

US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told CNN the parties were “very, very close” to reaching a deal, but still had to get it across the finish line.

“We are still determined to use every day we have in office to get this done,” Mr Sullivan said, “and we are not, by any stretch of imagination, setting this aside.”

For more than a year, the United States has been mediating talks alongside Qatar and Egypt for a deal to end the war in Gaza and release the remaining hostages.

Israeli campaign group the Hostages and Missing Families Forum called the latest developments “a historic opportunity to secure the release of all our loved ones”.

“Leave no stone unturned and return with an agreement that ensures the return of all hostages, down to the last one,” it said in a statement on Saturday.

Indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas resumed last weekend in Qatar.

With AFP